The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
This semester’s biannual InterCity Impact trip, through the Student Involvement and Employment Office, will give students the opportunity to travel to Milwaukee and volunteer their time helping others.
Students interested in signing up for the trip must fill out an online application, which can be found on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point website. The application deadline is Feb. 16.
Alanna LeClair, a senior majoring in social work and sociology, works as the service trip coordinator at SIEO. She will be accompanying the students on the InterCity Impact trip from Apr. 10 to 12.
“Volunteer experience is a good way for students to learn more about different social issues,” LeClair said. “For each trip, we try and focus on a different social issue. For this trip, we are helping those who struggle with poverty and homelessness.”
LeClair said students on the trip will be volunteering at a homeless center and working with the Milwaukee ReStore, a thrift store where proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity.
Photo courtesy of SIEO’s Facebook Page.
“Throughout the past trips, we also talked a lot about food insecurity and the food system in the United States,” LeClair said.Amanda Thielen, the volunteer and employment coordinator at SIEO, believes this trip is a good opportunity for students to give back to the state. It is also SIEO’s least expensive trip.
“What makes this different from our other trips is that we stay in the region,” Thielen said. “It’s helpful for students to get out of Stevens Point and see that there are issues in Wisconsin and that the state is not immune to serious issues.”
Kyle Bareta, a first-year student majoring in German, went on the InterCity Impact trip last semester. He recalls enjoying packing boxes full of food for low-income senior citizens.
“I know that I have many privileges and that I am in a place where I should be helping people who are busy just trying to make ends meet,” Bareta said.
Bareta feels that the experience bettered his understanding on some of the more serious issues going on in Milwaukee, especially since he lives close to the city.
“I think it’s great for students to be able to see the differences that they can make in such a short amount of time, while also learning about the social issues that are happening and what their role in that is,” LeClair said.
Caroline Chalk
Reporter
cchal845@uwsp.edu
